INDIANA – Are you a high school student who would love a FREE, original, highly sought-after t-shirt created by fashion designer Jake? Well, now is your chance. All you have to do is pull together a few of your friends, talk to your mayor or county foundation about your ideas on improving your community and apply to participate in IHCDA’s My Community, My Vision.
My Community, My Vision (MCMV) is a program from IHCDA designed to connect young people in Indiana to the places they live and allow them the opportunity to make a positive impact in their community. In collaboration with the Indiana Philanthropy Alliance (IPA) Youth Council and the Association of Indiana Municipalities (AIM) Mayoral Youth Council, up to five selected cohorts of students across the state will participate in four months of workshops, planning, and fundraising for a place-based community project they would like to see come to life in their town or city. Utilizing the features of IHCDA’s crowd-granting CreatINg Places program, students who successfully strategize, plan, and raise a fundraising goal of between $5,000 and $50,000 towards their community project will receive a matched grant from IHCDA.
High school youth council groups, alongside their foundation or local unit of government sponsor, will work throughout the course of a semester to determine a project, craft a budget, develop a fundraising goal and strategy, and raise the needed funds for all materials during a thirty-day fundraising campaign. Throughout the semester, students will be required to participate in three in-person workshops hosted by IHCDA, where they will learn about place-based community development, project planning, fundraising strategies, and stakeholder engagement. Each workshop will prepare students to brainstorm and reach their project goal, as well as provide networking and leadership opportunities. In the final workshop, students will present their work and success to their peers and Indiana’s community development leaders.
Local Units of Government and Community Foundations interested in having their AIM or IPA youth council participate in the My Community, My Vision program should apply. The full application, including a checklist of additional documents, is now available here. Applications are due to IHCDA on November 7, 2022, with selected Teams to be announced on November 30, 2022. The selected Teams will officially kick off with a workshop event on January 21, 2023.
